Elvis Presley, Walter Matthau, Carolyn Jones, “King Creole”
Walter Matthau in a BBC interview on working with Elvis Presley in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (Curtiz famously had an incomprehensible Hungarian accent):
I almost hesitate, I creep up to the sentence, he was an instinctive actor. Because that almost is a derogation of his talents. That’s saying, ‘Well, you know, he’s just a dumb animal who does it well by instinct.’ No, he was quite bright, too. He was very intelligent. Also, he was intelligent enough to understand what a character was and how to play the character simply by being himself through the means of the story. Michael Curtiz used to call him Elvy and he’d call me Valty. He’d say, ‘Now Elvy and Valty, come here, now Valty, this is not Academy Award scene. Don’t act so much. You are high-price actor. Make believe you are low-price actor. Let Elvy act.’ But Elvy didn’t overact. He was not a punk. He was very elegant, sedate … refined and sophisticated.
Great find — Walter Matthau, an excellent character actor in movies and on TV who everyone knows, saying that Elvis, as a movie actor, was “instinctive,” “very intelligent,” and “very elegant, sedate … refined and sophisticated.”
That’s gotta be in the Elvis project book.
“You are high-price actor. Make believe you are low-price actor.”
Great to hear a director who knows what he wants get it across so concisely.
It’s really a wonderful piece of advice!
Also, I love how – once the Curtiz quote ends – Matthau still refers to EP as “Elvy”.